New York and Washington in lockdown as 115mph winds knock out power to 100,000 homes with Sandy closing in on the cities
More than 50 million people in the most densely populated
corridor of the US waited with mounting dread for the full brute force
of
Hurricane Sandy on Monday, as the first gusts of wind and rain sent
New York City and Washington into lockdown and forced tens of thousands to leave their homes.
Hours
before making landfall, Sandy had already demonstrated the destructive
potential of what weather historians are billing as a "once in a
lifetime storm". By midday it had sunk a tall ship off North Carolina,
swamped a historic stretch of boardwalk in Atlantic City, knocked out
power to 100,000 homes across the eastern seaboard and was lapping at
the southern tip of Manhattan.
And that was just the beginning. As
landfall approached, the national hurricane centre reported that Sandy
was gaining in strength with sustained winds of 90mph and gusts of up to
115mph. The centre of the storm was moving at about 25mph,
significantly faster than during the early hours.
Mayland's governor, Martin O'Malley, said that the country faced difficult days ahead with possible fatalities.
The
storm was expected to make landfall at about 8pm on Monday, where it
would gain even greater force by combining with a winter storm or
north-easter. Forecasters said the combined "Frankenstorm", as it has
been nicknamed, could bring a foot of rain in some places, as well as
potentially lethal storm surges, especially in lower Manhattan. High
winds could produce power outages that would last for days, while
residents of West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky were told to
expect up to 2ft of snow.
The storm has killed at least 65 people
on its path through the Caribbean, including 51 in Haiti. As Sandy began
to lurch westwards towards the east coast,
Barack Obama
and the authorities in nine states appealed to people to stay calm and
out of harm's way. "This is a serious and big storm and my first message
is: 'You need to take this very seriously'," Obama told a briefing at
the White House on Monday.
He reinforced instructions to residents
from local authorities. "Please listen to what your state and local
officials are saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to
evacuate," the president said.
"Do not delay, don't pause, don't
question the instructions that are being given, because this is a
serious storm and could potentially have fatal consequences if people
haven't acted."
The storm forced Obama and his challenger, Mitt
Romney, to suspend their campaigns, at least through Tuesday. About 60
million other people, from North Carolina to New England, also
experienced a suspension of their daily routine. Nine states declared a
state of emergency, shutting down transport systems and schools and
ordering residents of low-lying areas to head for higher ground. More
than 9,000 flights were cancelled across the region, and the main rail
service was suspended.
In lower Manhattan, which was expected to
get the worst of the storm, New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg,
warned on Monday that the authorities were braced for an 11ft surge of
seawater that could leave low-lying areas of the city under water. The
city advised some 370,000 people in low-lying areas to evacuate at the
weekend.
By late morning, the authorities were moving to shut
down the tunnels that connect Manhattan to Brooklyn and New Jersey.
Subways, buses, trains and schools were shut, as well as the New York
stock exchange, and Bloomberg warned normal services should not be
expected before Wednesday.
In the meantime, Sandy continued to
churn up the coast. In North Carolina, crew were forced to abandon the
tall ship HMS Bounty after it began to take on water. Coast Guard
plucked 14 crew from lifeboats. Two remained missing.
The storm
also got in licks at coastal resort towns of Virginia Beach, Ocean City,
and Bethany Beach. O'Malley said a fishing pier in the resort town of
Ocean City was :"half-gone". Atlantic City had reports of water three
blocks inland. Reports of power outages spanned from Virginia to
Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Rolling waves were already washing
straight over the promenade wall in Battery Park, Manhattan, on Monday
morning. The area – a popular tourist spot with its views of the Statue
of Liberty – was part of Bloomberg's mandatory evacuation zone. Away
from the water police cars were driving slowly along streets
broadcasting warnings that people should leave. "You must evacuate this
area by 7pm today. Any person who knowingly violates this order may be
charged with a class B misdemeanour," the warning said.
The
walkway – normally packed with people jogging and cycling – was almost
entirely deserted, but Mark Gluck, a professor at Rutgers University,
said Sandy was not about keep him from his daily cycle route. "A bit of
drizzle, a bit of wind, it's a perfectly fine day to go cycling," Gluck
said.
He said he planned to cycle to the Upper West Side later in
the day for lunch. He had already stocked up his apartment for the
storm. "I'm well prepared, I've got food and water, I think it'll be
fine."
For the most, though, it appeared as if residents were
heeding the official warnings to hunker down at home – or get out of
town.
But that created its own sense of dread. In
Washington DC and other cities, many supermarkets ran out of staples such as bottled water and batteries well before the storm bore down.
New
York City's mandatory evacuation saw throngs of people crowding into
evacuation centres across the five boroughs. Around 80 had stayed
overnight at the John Jay high school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with many
more expected on Monday.
They included three dogs, a cat, a
turtle, a snake and a mouse. After last year's Hurricane Irene, the
staff and volunteers were more than ready for them. A handwritten sign
inside the door divided newcomers into two categories: people to the
right, animals to the left.
"This time last year we had
1,000 people in here," said one of three officials as he stood outside
on a break. "We had two rooms full of dogs and cats too. This year we
even got a turtle. And that snake's got his eye on the mouse. It it's
not gonna happen."
Inside, people from Coney Island, Red Hook and
other low-lying areas of Brooklyn gathered to wait out the storm. They
were served a cooked breakfast and there was BBQ chicken for lunch.
The
officers said they were surprised there were not more of them but
wondered whether last year – when Irene passed New York without major
incident – might have given people false reassurance.
"They ran out last year thinking it was the end, and it wasn't. But this one's different."
"It's
horrible," said Davon Little, who manages a supermarket in the
Brookland neighbourhood in north-east Washington after he ran out of
water for a second time. "The line's been going all the way down the
aisles. It's crowded and there are no carts outside. I've had two
arguments over beer."
source: guardian.
